All Quiet on the Western Front is a historical fiction novel written by German author Erich Maria Remarque in the late 1920s. It is narrated by Paul Baumer, a young man who joined the army voluntarily after listening a patriotic speech from his teacher, Kantorek. Paul shared his experiences and stories during the time he fought in the German army on the French front in World War I.

Paul Baumer is a nineteen years old high school student. He and several of his friends from school were encouraged by their teacher, Kantorek to join the army. The teacher told them that fighting in war is their duties, and they should feel honorable for protecting their country. So Paul and his classmates: Albert Kropp, Muller, and Leer went to the war. They were sent to the frontline after ten weeks of basic military training. All of them served under Second Company, where they met Tjaden, Haie Westhus, Detering, and Stanislaus Katczinsky. Albert Kropp is an intelligent thinker; Muller carries textbooks with him and studies hard; Leer is very interested in women. Tjaden is a locksmith and biggest eater in the company; Haie Westhus is a peat-digger with tall and strong body; Detering is a peasant who only thinks his farm and his wife; Stanislaus katczinsky is the leader of their small group and Paul’s closest friend. In Chapter One, there were original one hundred and fifty men in Paul’s company, but only eighty of them returned from the front. After seeing soldiers getting wounded and killed, Paul and his friends started to doubt is war really glorious like their teacher described? “We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through” (Remarque 12). Paul expresses how his generation feels cut off from the older generation. “From our life, we were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces” (Remarque 88). They were innocent young teenagers with their hopes and devotion for their country. But the war just turned them into...

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...Francois Fenelon once said, “All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers” (BrainyQuotes). Every man no matter what country he is from is interrelated. Whether someone is Christian or Catholic, they both believe in God; whether an American is Democratic or Republic they both agree on a democracy, and whether someone is Chinese or German, both are human beings. Throughout war every army man faces the horrors of watching their comrade’s die and the act of firing on a fellow human being. In AllQuiet on the WesternFront, Paul and his classmates experience exactly this. Paul went into war expecting a memorable experience but realized just the opposite was imminent. He was forced to murder fellow brothers, according to Fenelon. Paul and his comrades represent the Lost Generation after suffering physical, mentally, and emotionally in Erich Remarque’s AllQuiet on the WesternFront.
Throughout a war, many men will be titled as a casualty. The amount of death resulting from war is emphasized when the narrator says, “On the last day an astonishing number of English heavies opened up on us with high-explosive, drumming ceaselessly on our position, so that we suffered severely and came back only eighty strong” (Remarque 2). Just before this bombardment, the company consisted of 150 healthy men. Sometimes, other battles could be even...

...In the autumn of 1918, Paul Bäumer, a 20-year-old German soldier, contemplates his future: "Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing anymore. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear" (Chapter 12). These final, melancholy thoughts occur just before his young and untimely death. In AllQuiet on the WesternFront, Erich Maria Remarque creates Paul Bäumer to represent a whole generation of men who are known to history as the "lost generation." Eight million men died in battle, twenty-one million were injured, and over six and a half million noncombatants were killed in what is called "The Great War." When the smoke cleared and the bodies were finally buried, the world asked — like Paul and his friends — why? Remarque writes his story to explain their reason for asking this question and why they felt betrayed by their teachers, families, and government. He creates a tale of inhumanity and unspeakable horror and the only redeeming themes of his book are the recurring ideas of comradeship in the face of death and nature's beauty in the face of bleak hopelessness.
Remarque prefaces his story with his purpose: "I will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war." Throughout the story, the reader feels that this generation has come through an event that closes forever their chance...

...the autumn of 1918, a 20 year old german soldier contemplates to himself: “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear” (295). These last few thoughts happen right before this soldier, Paul Baumer, dies. In the book AllQuiet On the WesternFront, Erich Maria Remarque creates the character of Paul Baumer in order to illustrate a generation full of men who are well known throughout our history, of what we all know of, the “Lost Generation.” About eight million soldiers lost their lives in combat and millions more were injured under the occasion of what we call today, “The Great War.” Remarque wrote this book about what these fighters at war deal with first hand; like with their teachers, families, and government. AllQuiet On the WesternFront expresses a story filled with the beauty of comradeship between each of the soldiers by finding solace in one another and the extenuating gestures of raillery throughout the book that help keep them from completely being taken over by the fear of death, or even war itself.
Throughout all the horrifying pictures of death and inhumanity, Remarque shows a quality that makes it better: comradeship. Two scenes that caught to my attention that showed acts of soldiers finding comfort...

...Kosch Bradford
Period 3
March 13, 2013
“AllQuiet On the WesternFront” Book Review
“Allquiet on the westernfront” was a war story of a young man’s life during World
War 1. The book was told from a different perspective then war books I have previously read before; it showed the German soldiers life and how they perceived the war. It explained harsh events that happened and brutal situations that the Germans endured.
This book takes in the westernfront where Paul, the main character is stationed. He was convinced by his school teacher to enlist in the German army. He and classmates were all accepted and were now a part of the German army at the age of twenty. Most of the book takes place in the terrifying trenches that everyone feared during this time period. Paul was living the trenches throughout the book except when he was able to go on leave, which is when he went to visit his family. When the battles occurred they were small and didn’t mention the name. Paul didn’t mention the names of battles so there is no truth to what could happen or not have happened.
Reading through Paul’s description of what was occurring the Germans where not winning the war. The Germans were constantly bombarded with mortars and starving unlike the opposing American Army. The Americans were the dominant...

...ALLQUIET ON THE WESTERNFRONT
In the book AllQuiet on the WesternFront the main character and narrator Paul describes the war as not fighting for his country but fighting for his own survival. This theme has been repeatedly outspoken in the book because Paul and the other characters have lost their sense of patriotism. Once the characters have left their previous feelings of patriotism, which is why they joined the war initially, they have no other choice but to fight in order to survive the war. Throughout the book Paul thinks back to when he was in school listening to one of his teachers lecture and he thought that at this point he had great feelings of patriotism and love for his country. Later on in the book when he is with his classmates overseas in the war he realizes that he no longer fights in the war is for love of country but for his own survival.
In the book one of Paul’s friends dies in his arms at the infirmary and Müller say’s, "We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by" (Remarque 21). This quote is in reference to how Müller wishes to take the dying soldiers boots because they are in much better condition than his and because he is dying he will no longer need them. This is an example of fighting for...

...The book, AllQuiet on the WesternFront by Erich Maria Remarque can be identified with many themes. Whether the theme is loyalty to friends, the unbelievable suffering at the hands of other human beings, or the beauty of nature in contrast to the horrors of war, none of those are as fitting as the theme: betrayal by adults. The manipulation performed by a trusted schoolmaster, the awful treatment done by someone who is called a leader, and parents going along with what society thinks is right versus what their sons want, all are important factors that explain why betrayal by adults is the central idea of this story.
In Remarque’s book, the main character, Paul Baümer and his comrades all have a bitter feeling towards their once schoolmaster, Kantorek. The reason for this resentment towards the man is because he was basically the cause of everything. Everything being the reason why the young men joined the army. In the very beginning of the story, where Paul describes everyone, and when he describes Kantorek, it is certain that he dislikes the man. He also reveals that Kantorek was the one who almost manipulated the boys into joining the German forces.
“Kantorek had been our schoolmaster, a stern little man in a grey tail-coat, with a face like a shrew mouse..... During drill-time Kantorek gave us long lectures until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District...

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AllQuiet on the WesternFrontAllQuiet on the WesternFront could definitely be considered an anti-war novel. The changes the characters in the novel subjected themselves to throughout the book allow the reader to view the negative effects soldiers went through during, as well as after the war. Anti-war means that you are against the war and leaning more towards the idea of peace. This novel showed the dissatisfaction and disappointment in each character once they begun to truly understand war and battle from first-hand experience. AllQuiet on the WesternFront had an anti-war theme in every aspect of the book starting with the eagerness of the characters at the beginning of the war and their transformation to disappointment after the war. The description of the bloody battles, the severe causalities of the war, and the after effects on the soldiers themselves showed that the author was showing the story of WWI in a way that showed negativity towards war. By humanizing the soldiers Erich Maria Remarque allows us to understand how these young men were just like the average person fighting relentlessly for a purpose that was not even clear to them, and for little to no personal or national gain. The soldier’s ultimate goal was to survive and although they transform throughout the novel...

...Allquiet on the westernfront is a WW1 novel from the perspective of a German Veteran Paul. This book describes the German soldiers’ extreme mental and physical stress during the war that he and his colleagues endure. “I am young, I am twenty years old, yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how people are set against one another.” Says narrator Paul Baumer; Erich Maria Remarque the author of AllQuiet on the WesternFront. As many would agree, as well as Erich, that war is a machine that destroys all lives that are involved, even the survivors. It doesn’t stop, almost like its mechanical, with its on going conflict that seems to never end. Finally, it transforms men, just like a machine would transform materials. These reasons on why war is a machine are expressed throughout the book in multiple examples.
Its no surprise war destroys lives or takes lives, in AllQuiet on the WesternFront multiple lives are taken or destroyed. The most dominant example is through Paul himself. Before the war he was a writer, living his life through peace and prosperity. Throughout the book Paul’s faith slowly diminishes and he starts to forget who he really is. This is foreshadowed through his play Saul, because it’s a play about a...